How
nice it would be occasionally to come across a disc of Barber
that did not include the Adagio for Strings! Nevertheless,
it’s hard to carp at this issue too much as it gives excellent
value. It also has the added bonus of allowing us to compare
two marvellous versions of the aforementioned Adagio.
The piece started life in 1936 as the slow movement of
Barber’s String Quartet, but was first performed in the well-known
string orchestra version (track 1) by Toscanini in 1938.
The arrangement for eight-part unaccompanied choir (track
9) dates from much later – 1967 – but has come almost to rival
the string version in popularity.

The
performances of these first and last tracks are very fine
ones. Previn shapes the Adagio masterfully, and the LSO strings
are on excellent form. The climax is intense and yet tightly
controlled. My only reservation was with the tone of the
strings at the very end, where the violins seem too hard and
bright, undermining the sense of dignity and resignation.
No details of recording dates and venues are given, which
is annoying; but there is a copyright date of 1977,
indicating the general era of the recording, and it has worn
very well.

The
Agnus Dei draws some splendid singing from Westminster
Cathedral Choir, under that superb choral trainer David Hill.
This is an ‘all male’ version, and it has to be said that
the boys cope remarkably well with the very long expressive
lines – better than the men of the choir in fact! But, as
so often with English cathedral choirs, the hooting of the
male altos will rule this version way out for many listeners.
If that worries you - and it does me - then it would be advisable
to go for a mixed choir version - for example the very intense
Accentus Chamber Choir and Laurence Equilbey (Naive 4965).

Which
brings me to the real meat of this disc: three substantial
Barber masterpieces, the Violin Concerto, the First Essay
and the Cello Concerto. The conductor in the first two of
these is Leonard Slatkin, and whatever one may think of his
work in some areas of repertoire, he is hard to fault in American
music. His soloist in the violin work is the wonderful Elmar
Oliveira, who gives a glorious interpretation of a glorious
piece. Sometimes, it is very hard to put your finger on what
is so special about a performance; this one feels right
from the very outset. I came to the conclusion that at least
some of the credit for this goes to the engineers for securing
such an ideal balance between soloist and orchestra. This
means that all the wonderful details in the scoring come through
with complete clarity – the bass notes in the piano at the
very start, or the gentle touches of pizzicato which pervade
the Allegro for example. Oliveira is constantly alert,
unfailingly musical, and technically completely in command,
apart from one brief patch of slightly sour intonation around
2:00 (track 2) and thereafter. A captivating performance,
seemingly effortless, but imbued with the very spirit of this
magical score.

Slatkin’s
reading of Essay No.1 is similarly impressive. This is a
powerful work, much more weighty than its nine minutes’ duration
might suggest. The playing of the St. Louis Symphony achieves
a consistently beautiful sound without sacrificing the pain
which lurks behind every bar of this great music. And what
a wonderfully enigmatic ending!

The
Cello Concerto is a much less obviously attractive work than
its companion for the violin; but it is a fine and entertaining
piece, showing Barber in his rather more gritty mood. Indeed
its first movement seems almost to take up where the frenetic
finale of the Violin Concerto leaves off. Ralph Kirshbaum
is a persuasive and committed soloist, even if his heavy breathing
is a bit distracting in the first movement’s cadenza, and
the Scottish Chamber Orchestra support adequately, though
without the distinction of the more starry orchestras on the
disc.

At
nearly eighty minutes, this disc is exceptional value, and
would be worth the money for the Violin Concerto and the Essay
alone. Question: is Samuel Barber the most inexplicably underrated
composer of the 20th century? Seems like it to
me!

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